November 30, 2025 • 20 mins
This is not just an example of how Osher would calm his body and mind and overcome fear - it's an example of him doing just that, in real time.
For more from Osher including the Story Club Youtube and copies of his new book So What, Now What? head here
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Gooday, Thanks for listening to the show. This is better
than yesterday. Useful tools and useful conversations to help make
your day to day better than it was yesterday. Every
single episode, twice a week since twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm so grateful we all here. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
My name is Osha Ginsburg. I am a dad, I'm
a stepdad. I'm a first selling author, and I am
packing my dacks right now. You're listening to my voice
from a few days ago. And I thought it would
be interesting to do a podcast about what's going on
and why I am afraid right now. Because it's one
(00:35):
thing to talk about what to do when the fear
is upon you, and how to process fear. It's another thing.
And I thought, I've never done that on this show. Actually,
as it goes, I've never done it in the moment,
and this is an opportunity to do.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That because I'm scared right now.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
In one hour and twelve minutes from now, I am
going to dive into a swimming pool and attempt to
swim four hundred something meters in under. I think it's
eight minutes and forty five seconds something like that. Why
am I doing this Wolfgang started Nippers this year and
(01:13):
if you're not from Australia, Nippers is the word we
use for the junior ranks of the surf life saving
clubs that we have here. We have a beautiful culture
that surrounds our beaches. The volunteer surf life savers that
have been in operation since nineteen oh six and depending
on who you believe, it's Bondo or it's Bronte. One
(01:34):
of them was the first ones. Both of those are
on bondou RISCy. This is the same microphone that's here.
A lot of Bondo rescue by the way, and so
a part of that it's a volunteer. The Red and
Yellow Lifeguards are the volunteer ones and they come up
through the ranks and there's various disciplines that go around lifeguarding.
There are board races, they made it competitive, and there's
(01:54):
surf boats and things like this. But it's a beautiful
culture and it's a community culture and it's based around
helping each other and helping people who were in trouble
and literally saving lives. So when if you've ever seen Nippers,
they start at under six, so five year olds, a
bunch of five year olds in bright pink rashvests and
little caps on their heads, or powering into the waves.
(02:16):
It's pretty fun, but it could go pair shape pretty
quickly because a lot of these kids have never jumped
in the surf before, and a large part of Nippers
is helping young people in Australia learn how to be
in the surf and not get in trouble and end
up getting narrated on an episode of Bondo Rescue by
me Georgia or our eldest. She's now twty one. She
did NIPPERS and I never ever, ever worried about her
(02:38):
at the ocean. I got into trouble in the surf
as late as my mid twenties because I didn't know
what I was doing and I wasn't able to handle
the waves and I didn't know really how it all worked,
and I had to do something about that. So anyway,
Wolfe started Nippers this season, and I always said to myself,
when he grows up, once he gets in the Nippers,
(02:58):
I want to get involved in water safety because I
want to be around the club and I want to
be able to systemize.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I want to be a part of a community.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I moved around a lot in my life, and this
is the first time since I've been with Audrey and Georgia,
this is the first time that I've felt a part
of a community. It's the longest I've lived in the
same area in my life other than when I left
my childhood home. And it's wonderful. It's really really wonderful
to want to be to be a part of this community,
(03:28):
and I want to be deeper into this community because
I feel more resilient and more connected and a part
of something bigger. The problems that I feel don't feel
as big because I'm sharing them with the people who
live around me. And this is a really wonderful way
to do that. And plus I want to show Wolf
how important it is because I want to do it too.
So to qualify to be a water safety person for
the little kids doing NIP is you have to hold
a thing at Australia called a Bronze medallion. Now it's
(03:50):
not an actual thing, it is a qualification level that
you have to pass, which then allows you to then
be a person who could sit on the beach and
volunteer as a lifeguard on the weekends. But that is
also the level of qualification that you need to be
on water safety for the kids, and here we are.
The first step in this course is a swim proficiency test,
(04:12):
and it is, as I said, swimming four hundred and
something as four hundred and twenty I think, in a
little under eight and a half minute, little around out
and a half minutes. The course itself doesn't start till January,
but it's November and they're doing the swim proficiency tests now.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I guess they want to kind of filterout the week
from the chaff.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
So I signed up for this a couple of weeks
ago and Wolfe started and I was like, yes, so
here I go, Here I go. But in those ensuing weeks,
a number of things have happened. I'm an old man,
I'm fifty one, and if you get to my age
and you don't have your shoulders are no longer referred
to as left and right, they're referred to as good
and bad. If you're not at my age, I'm referring
(04:48):
to your shoulders is good and bad, then I don't
know if you've lived a great life all right. Honestly,
for the ultrasound lady the other day, because my shoulder
is fucking hurting and I had to get a steroid
injection in it the other day, and the ultrasad lady said,
what have.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
You done to yourself? And I said, I'm fifty one.
What do you want? Like? This is what happens?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Or you just trying to stay active and stay up
to date and stay vital and stay you know, side
by side with your kids as they go through life.
You know, if you don't look after your body, things
starts to break down. And due to some dumb stuff
I've done earlier in my life, I've managed to hurt
my shoulder a bit. So not only has my shoulder
(05:28):
been really bothering me to the point where like I
can't really wash my hair very well with one hand,
kind of hurting. Two weeks ago, Georgia she went to
Bali and she brought us all back a lovely souvenir
in the form of a pathogen that she got I
don't know day three or four of her trip, and
(05:49):
we all got Wolf and I got it like three
days after she got back, and Audrey was a day
behind us, And gastro is one of those things.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
It just it's non discriminatory.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It just destroyed me Wolf and I had very similar symptoms,
but I was in trouble and so the swim proficiency
was last week actually, but I emailed the person who's
in chargement has said, I'm not going to be able
to do it. I can't, Like I'm so depleted from
this virus, from whatever's happening in my body, I cannot.
(06:23):
I'm dizzy walking upstairs. I'm going to be no use.
There's no way I can do that, s whim. And
they were very kind and said, okay, well there's a
couple other people doing it, and you know, we can
meet next week on this day. And that day is
today and it is now one hour and six minutes away.
Now I haven't got in a pool and done laps
(06:44):
for a really long time. Of course, you can bet
there was bland for me to do it. There was
plans for me to get in the water, but of
course none of it manifested. And so I yesterday I thought,
I'm gonna at least just have to go getting the water.
So it's not the first time I've swum freestyle in forever.
You know, when I'm staring at a black line, let's go.
(07:07):
And so I went down to the pool yesterday. We're
very lucky. In our part of the city, we have
this beautiful ocean, ocean pools which are built in the
headlands of some of the sandstone rocks there. And I
jumped in the pool near our place, and I was
terrified yesterday.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I was terrified so.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Much so that I'm procrastinating, you know, getting on the
bike with my towel and everything, and I'm finding things
on the bike that need to be loosened or tightened,
and I don't get on the bike. I go over
to the toolbox and I grab one of the bike
spanners and the tighten a thing, and I check a thing,
and I grab some lubric and I was like, no, no, no,
what are you fucking doing. Just get on your bike
and ride down the beach. So I was stalling and stalling,
a selling slam and I got down there, but I know,
just keep moving, just keep moving, just breathe and keep moving.
(07:45):
And so I got down there and I don't have
a stop watch. I don't know how fast I went.
I don't know how I did. I do know that
I was more breathless than I would like to be,
and I do know that my shoulder and my body
hurt a lot more trying to do it than I
would have liked. But it's too late now. So I'm
sitting here and I'm very, very nervous. And when I'm
(08:08):
nervous like this, the first thing that I find is
important to do was identify it and notice it. And
I wrote about this in the new book, so you know,
to do a quick scan. It's like, I'm noticing that
I feel a strange tension at the top of my stomach.
I'm noticing there's a tightness in my throat. I'm noticing
my fingers are shaking a little bit. I'm noticing my
(08:28):
breath is a little hesitant when I breathe in.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You might've just heard it. Then there was a.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It wasn't a smooth in and out breath. There was
a little spasm in the middle of it. So I'm
noticing that my diaphragm is spasm when I'm breathing. Okay,
So that's the first thing. And once you start noticing it,
now it's just a symptom. Now it's just a thing.
So even just saying that out loud, even just telling
you what I'm noticing, all of those sensations have been
(08:54):
turned down quite a bit, probably at least fifty or
sixty percent that's in this you're hearing the audio recording
of this happening live. The next thing to do is
to breathe, all right, So I short out exhale like
two on in two inhales and four on the exhale,
So two.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And then I'm going to do a few more of them.
Talk amongst yourselves, and one more.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And if I check those sensations I told you about
two minutes ago, they're even further down. They're still there,
but they're nowhere near what they were. The next thing
I'm going to do is visualize what happens. I'm going
to stand up from this desk. I'm going to walk outside.
I'm going to grab my towel off the line, going
(09:55):
to walk to my bicycle, Put the towel in the
bicycle bag, lock the bicycle, put my helmet on, ride
down to the beach, lock my bicycle, Get out of
my dry clothes and just leave my togs on. Jump
in the water and get warmed up. Get out, take
a bit of a breather, look around and find I'm
(10:19):
looking for a tall guy in a yellow hat called Michael.
When I find him, go, introduce myself, say hey, I
am Where do you want to do it? How do
you want to do it? Oh, don't forget my goggles.
I've got to ring my gobbles with me. And I'll say,
all right, where are you going to stand? Where am
I going to go? How does it work? I'll ask
him how it goes? Okay, dive in and go, and
(10:43):
I'm going to think about making sure that I keep
my breathing. Even if I think about what I did
when I was running marathons, it wasn't who was the fastest,
it's who slowed down the least. So find a pace
that I can manage and make sure that my breathing
isn't too out of sink so I'm not hyperventilating or
(11:04):
I'm not, you know, starving myself of oxygen and trying
to get my rhythm right, reach really well with my arms,
make sure my kicks aren't lazy, like give my kicks
actually something, and then count the lapse backwards so I
know that when I can put the hammer down and
(11:26):
when I look up at the end, he's either going
to say you made it or you didn't. Now if
I made it great, if I didn't, I'll ask could
I take a break and try again. If he says, nah, mate,
then that's good information that I know what I need
to do. There's another intake for the bronze medallion in July.
(11:47):
It's in the middle of winter. I've got a wet suit.
I'll be fine, and I've got six months to get
that fitness and that's okay, all right, And then I'll
get back on my bike and I'll ride home.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And I'm not even.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Lying to you. In the space of this conversation. The
tension and the shakiness in my hands is now gone.
The feeling at the top of my stomach is still
a little bit there. My throats are a bit tight.
But if I just remember that I've done all I
can do. I can't get fitter in the next forty minutes. Actually, no,
(12:34):
it's thirty five minutes. No, it's less cracky. Yes, it's
not far. I can't get fitter in this amount of time.
All I can do is breathe make sure I find
a pace in a rhythm that I can sustain.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And do my best.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Now, did I make it or not? You're about to
hear an ad break. It might be a couple of
seconds for you. But I'm going to stop recording. I'm
going to go do this thing, and I'm going to
come back and tell you how it went, because you
can't be where you can't see, and like, I'd never
(13:16):
heard anybody processing anything like this in my life. I've
never heard someone else talk through it in real time,
and so I really hope this is useful.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
But I can honestly tell you that.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Just those things that I've described to you have made
a huge difference in my body and have helped me
get out of the what if and the catastrophe and
oh my god, I'm not fit enough. I'm not going
to make it. So if I make it great, if
I don't great, either way, I'll get to go and
have a swim at an ocean pool in the middle
of a day. That's nice, all right, Sit tight, I'll
(13:53):
be right back. Well, I clearly sound very different to
(14:17):
how I did just before.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
So I am now down the beach and I only
just out of the pool, and.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
The goal was four hundred and twenty meters and eight
minutes forty.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Five and I was at hang on, just show it
about what was it?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
It was?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, And I did four hundred and twenty meters in
ten minutes and twenty three seconds.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
So I'm a whole.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Five. So I'm ninety seconds out. I'm ninety seconds too slow.
I'm down the beach now and the Joshadow car jbl
On Wheels is rolling in.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
To bring some vibe to the ocean pool. It's beautiful day.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
It's it's thirty one thirty two degrees and the sun
shining and.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Swells up. It's glorious.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
But I swear my guards out. I got down here,
I warmed up. I met the guy. It's a lovely chap.
Our kids are in the same age group at nippers.
There was a couple other people I recognize. One of
my neighbors is in there, another lady.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
These guys have got tumble turns and stuff. Man, I
really need.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
To work on that.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I've got in the pool and I can tell.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Ah man.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
I tried to get on top of the nerves, but I.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Knew though I wasn't going fast enough. So unfortunately I
pushed it and I thought I'm either going to I'm
going to vomit, or I'm going to be okay. So
I managed to not vomit, but it was definitely I
was pushing that hard. But he was very sweet about it.
He goes, you're over, mate, you're over. You're about ninety
(16:26):
seconds over.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
So okay, I guess it's all right. We'll do another
one before the end of January. But you know, the
course starts. Just get in the pool, Get in the pool.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Who was very encouraging, and I really I'm really grateful
for the way that he taught me through it because
it's clear that I'm not at the cardoff so I
need to be for the fitness level that it needs
to be to do.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
This thing, which is fair enough.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
If your volunteer life savers get paffed, that's not good.
You want your volunteer life savers to have a level
of fitness about him, you know what I mean. So
I get it, but so in the same way that
there's a disappointment. But it's not.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
A situation where I'm.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Like, oh, what a total failure.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I fuck this, it's all over, which is definitely something
that would have happened when I was a younger man. No,
this is a okay, Well, there's there's a target to
aim at, there's something to head for, and I know
from when I was running. If my running times were
(17:39):
slower after a period of inactivity, just how quickly they
come back. How quickly you can recondition yourself into fitness
is something that you can't underestimate.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
But it just requires a consistency.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And so if anything, when he says you're a bit over, mate,
we're going to do another one again in January.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
So I didn't realize there was going to be another
one of the end of January. So that's nice.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
But now I've got a little over two months and
I know where I need to go. It's always good
to have a target to aim for, so I know where.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I need to go, I know where my.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Times need to get to, I know how I've got
a feel when I get to various parts of the swim,
and now I know, and that is really an enormous relief.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Because now I I know what to do. I told
you earlier this could have ended in two ways, either
get it or.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I don't, but I didn't realize it was a third way.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I didn't realize you could not get it, and you
get another chance to try again, and it actually.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Feels really good.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I was legitimately quite afraid before, and I had a
lot of nervous attention and a lot of anxiety, which
may have affected me, but I don't think it affected
me as much as my general lack of fitness. However,
(19:07):
it does kind of remind me of when it throw
all our hip surgery stuff and the doctor that really
really really helped me. Here's one that just explained to
me is like, look, once you get a diagnosis, you
get a plan. As soon as you know that a
plan exists, things feel a lot better because at least
you know that you've got somewhere to go. And now
I know I've got somewhere to go, I know how
I want to get there, I don't know what I
(19:28):
need to do to get there, and there's a huge.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Chance of relief. It's nice.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I'm very lucky to live in a country that values
looking after each other, the point where you're having an
entire volunteer organization dedicated.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
To helping people enjoy the beach safely.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
It's wonderful to sit here and watch the waves break
over the rocks, and the crabs cool around, and people
enjoy themselves out in the sun.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Have a beautiful week. I see you back here Wednesday.
I'm gonna go do some ones,
Gooday, Thanks for listening to the show. This is better
than yesterday. Useful tools and useful conversations to help make
your day to day better than it was yesterday. Every
single episode, twice a week since twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm so grateful we all here. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
My name is Osha Ginsburg. I am a dad, I'm
a stepdad. I'm a first selling author, and I am
packing my dacks right now. You're listening to my voice
from a few days ago. And I thought it would
be interesting to do a podcast about what's going on
and why I am afraid right now. Because it's one
(00:35):
thing to talk about what to do when the fear
is upon you, and how to process fear. It's another thing.
And I thought, I've never done that on this show. Actually,
as it goes, I've never done it in the moment,
and this is an opportunity to do.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That because I'm scared right now.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
In one hour and twelve minutes from now, I am
going to dive into a swimming pool and attempt to
swim four hundred something meters in under. I think it's
eight minutes and forty five seconds something like that. Why
am I doing this Wolfgang started Nippers this year and
(01:13):
if you're not from Australia, Nippers is the word we
use for the junior ranks of the surf life saving
clubs that we have here. We have a beautiful culture
that surrounds our beaches. The volunteer surf life savers that
have been in operation since nineteen oh six and depending
on who you believe, it's Bondo or it's Bronte. One
(01:34):
of them was the first ones. Both of those are
on bondou RISCy. This is the same microphone that's here.
A lot of Bondo rescue by the way, and so
a part of that it's a volunteer. The Red and
Yellow Lifeguards are the volunteer ones and they come up
through the ranks and there's various disciplines that go around lifeguarding.
There are board races, they made it competitive, and there's
(01:54):
surf boats and things like this. But it's a beautiful
culture and it's a community culture and it's based around
helping each other and helping people who were in trouble
and literally saving lives. So when if you've ever seen Nippers,
they start at under six, so five year olds, a
bunch of five year olds in bright pink rashvests and
little caps on their heads, or powering into the waves.
(02:16):
It's pretty fun, but it could go pair shape pretty
quickly because a lot of these kids have never jumped
in the surf before, and a large part of Nippers
is helping young people in Australia learn how to be
in the surf and not get in trouble and end
up getting narrated on an episode of Bondo Rescue by
me Georgia or our eldest. She's now twty one. She
did NIPPERS and I never ever, ever worried about her
(02:38):
at the ocean. I got into trouble in the surf
as late as my mid twenties because I didn't know
what I was doing and I wasn't able to handle
the waves and I didn't know really how it all worked,
and I had to do something about that. So anyway,
Wolfe started Nippers this season, and I always said to myself,
when he grows up, once he gets in the Nippers,
(02:58):
I want to get involved in water safety because I
want to be around the club and I want to
be able to systemize.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I want to be a part of a community.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I moved around a lot in my life, and this
is the first time since I've been with Audrey and Georgia,
this is the first time that I've felt a part
of a community. It's the longest I've lived in the
same area in my life other than when I left
my childhood home. And it's wonderful. It's really really wonderful
to want to be to be a part of this community,
(03:28):
and I want to be deeper into this community because
I feel more resilient and more connected and a part
of something bigger. The problems that I feel don't feel
as big because I'm sharing them with the people who
live around me. And this is a really wonderful way
to do that. And plus I want to show Wolf
how important it is because I want to do it too.
So to qualify to be a water safety person for
the little kids doing NIP is you have to hold
a thing at Australia called a Bronze medallion. Now it's
(03:50):
not an actual thing, it is a qualification level that
you have to pass, which then allows you to then
be a person who could sit on the beach and
volunteer as a lifeguard on the weekends. But that is
also the level of qualification that you need to be
on water safety for the kids, and here we are.
The first step in this course is a swim proficiency test,
(04:12):
and it is, as I said, swimming four hundred and
something as four hundred and twenty I think, in a
little under eight and a half minute, little around out
and a half minutes. The course itself doesn't start till January,
but it's November and they're doing the swim proficiency tests now.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I guess they want to kind of filterout the week
from the chaff.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
So I signed up for this a couple of weeks
ago and Wolfe started and I was like, yes, so
here I go, Here I go. But in those ensuing weeks,
a number of things have happened. I'm an old man,
I'm fifty one, and if you get to my age
and you don't have your shoulders are no longer referred
to as left and right, they're referred to as good
and bad. If you're not at my age, I'm referring
(04:48):
to your shoulders is good and bad, then I don't
know if you've lived a great life all right. Honestly,
for the ultrasound lady the other day, because my shoulder
is fucking hurting and I had to get a steroid
injection in it the other day, and the ultrasad lady said,
what have.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
You done to yourself? And I said, I'm fifty one.
What do you want? Like? This is what happens?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Or you just trying to stay active and stay up
to date and stay vital and stay you know, side
by side with your kids as they go through life.
You know, if you don't look after your body, things
starts to break down. And due to some dumb stuff
I've done earlier in my life, I've managed to hurt
my shoulder a bit. So not only has my shoulder
(05:28):
been really bothering me to the point where like I
can't really wash my hair very well with one hand,
kind of hurting. Two weeks ago, Georgia she went to
Bali and she brought us all back a lovely souvenir
in the form of a pathogen that she got I
don't know day three or four of her trip, and
(05:49):
we all got Wolf and I got it like three
days after she got back, and Audrey was a day
behind us, And gastro is one of those things.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
It just it's non discriminatory.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It just destroyed me Wolf and I had very similar symptoms,
but I was in trouble and so the swim proficiency
was last week actually, but I emailed the person who's
in chargement has said, I'm not going to be able
to do it. I can't, Like I'm so depleted from
this virus, from whatever's happening in my body, I cannot.
(06:23):
I'm dizzy walking upstairs. I'm going to be no use.
There's no way I can do that, s whim. And
they were very kind and said, okay, well there's a
couple other people doing it, and you know, we can
meet next week on this day. And that day is
today and it is now one hour and six minutes away.
Now I haven't got in a pool and done laps
(06:44):
for a really long time. Of course, you can bet
there was bland for me to do it. There was
plans for me to get in the water, but of
course none of it manifested. And so I yesterday I thought,
I'm gonna at least just have to go getting the water.
So it's not the first time I've swum freestyle in forever.
You know, when I'm staring at a black line, let's go.
(07:07):
And so I went down to the pool yesterday. We're
very lucky. In our part of the city, we have
this beautiful ocean, ocean pools which are built in the
headlands of some of the sandstone rocks there. And I
jumped in the pool near our place, and I was
terrified yesterday.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I was terrified so.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Much so that I'm procrastinating, you know, getting on the
bike with my towel and everything, and I'm finding things
on the bike that need to be loosened or tightened,
and I don't get on the bike. I go over
to the toolbox and I grab one of the bike
spanners and the tighten a thing, and I check a thing,
and I grab some lubric and I was like, no, no, no,
what are you fucking doing. Just get on your bike
and ride down the beach. So I was stalling and stalling,
a selling slam and I got down there, but I know,
just keep moving, just keep moving, just breathe and keep moving.
(07:45):
And so I got down there and I don't have
a stop watch. I don't know how fast I went.
I don't know how I did. I do know that
I was more breathless than I would like to be,
and I do know that my shoulder and my body
hurt a lot more trying to do it than I
would have liked. But it's too late now. So I'm
sitting here and I'm very, very nervous. And when I'm
(08:08):
nervous like this, the first thing that I find is
important to do was identify it and notice it. And
I wrote about this in the new book, so you know,
to do a quick scan. It's like, I'm noticing that
I feel a strange tension at the top of my stomach.
I'm noticing there's a tightness in my throat. I'm noticing
my fingers are shaking a little bit. I'm noticing my
(08:28):
breath is a little hesitant when I breathe in.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You might've just heard it. Then there was a.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It wasn't a smooth in and out breath. There was
a little spasm in the middle of it. So I'm
noticing that my diaphragm is spasm when I'm breathing. Okay,
So that's the first thing. And once you start noticing it,
now it's just a symptom. Now it's just a thing.
So even just saying that out loud, even just telling
you what I'm noticing, all of those sensations have been
(08:54):
turned down quite a bit, probably at least fifty or
sixty percent that's in this you're hearing the audio recording
of this happening live. The next thing to do is
to breathe, all right, So I short out exhale like
two on in two inhales and four on the exhale,
So two.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And then I'm going to do a few more of them.
Talk amongst yourselves, and one more.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And if I check those sensations I told you about
two minutes ago, they're even further down. They're still there,
but they're nowhere near what they were. The next thing
I'm going to do is visualize what happens. I'm going
to stand up from this desk. I'm going to walk outside.
I'm going to grab my towel off the line, going
(09:55):
to walk to my bicycle, Put the towel in the
bicycle bag, lock the bicycle, put my helmet on, ride
down to the beach, lock my bicycle, Get out of
my dry clothes and just leave my togs on. Jump
in the water and get warmed up. Get out, take
a bit of a breather, look around and find I'm
(10:19):
looking for a tall guy in a yellow hat called Michael.
When I find him, go, introduce myself, say hey, I
am Where do you want to do it? How do
you want to do it? Oh, don't forget my goggles.
I've got to ring my gobbles with me. And I'll say,
all right, where are you going to stand? Where am
I going to go? How does it work? I'll ask
him how it goes? Okay, dive in and go, and
(10:43):
I'm going to think about making sure that I keep
my breathing. Even if I think about what I did
when I was running marathons, it wasn't who was the fastest,
it's who slowed down the least. So find a pace
that I can manage and make sure that my breathing
isn't too out of sink so I'm not hyperventilating or
(11:04):
I'm not, you know, starving myself of oxygen and trying
to get my rhythm right, reach really well with my arms,
make sure my kicks aren't lazy, like give my kicks
actually something, and then count the lapse backwards so I
know that when I can put the hammer down and
(11:26):
when I look up at the end, he's either going
to say you made it or you didn't. Now if
I made it great, if I didn't, I'll ask could
I take a break and try again. If he says, nah, mate,
then that's good information that I know what I need
to do. There's another intake for the bronze medallion in July.
(11:47):
It's in the middle of winter. I've got a wet suit.
I'll be fine, and I've got six months to get
that fitness and that's okay, all right, And then I'll
get back on my bike and I'll ride home.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And I'm not even.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Lying to you. In the space of this conversation. The
tension and the shakiness in my hands is now gone.
The feeling at the top of my stomach is still
a little bit there. My throats are a bit tight.
But if I just remember that I've done all I
can do. I can't get fitter in the next forty minutes. Actually, no,
(12:34):
it's thirty five minutes. No, it's less cracky. Yes, it's
not far. I can't get fitter in this amount of time.
All I can do is breathe make sure I find
a pace in a rhythm that I can sustain.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And do my best.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Now, did I make it or not? You're about to
hear an ad break. It might be a couple of
seconds for you. But I'm going to stop recording. I'm
going to go do this thing, and I'm going to
come back and tell you how it went, because you
can't be where you can't see, and like, I'd never
(13:16):
heard anybody processing anything like this in my life. I've
never heard someone else talk through it in real time,
and so I really hope this is useful.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
But I can honestly tell you that.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Just those things that I've described to you have made
a huge difference in my body and have helped me
get out of the what if and the catastrophe and
oh my god, I'm not fit enough. I'm not going
to make it. So if I make it great, if
I don't great, either way, I'll get to go and
have a swim at an ocean pool in the middle
of a day. That's nice, all right, Sit tight, I'll
(13:53):
be right back. Well, I clearly sound very different to
(14:17):
how I did just before.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
So I am now down the beach and I only
just out of the pool, and.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
The goal was four hundred and twenty meters and eight
minutes forty.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Five and I was at hang on, just show it
about what was it?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
It was?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, And I did four hundred and twenty meters in
ten minutes and twenty three seconds.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
So I'm a whole.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Five. So I'm ninety seconds out. I'm ninety seconds too slow.
I'm down the beach now and the Joshadow car jbl
On Wheels is rolling in.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
To bring some vibe to the ocean pool. It's beautiful day.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
It's it's thirty one thirty two degrees and the sun
shining and.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Swells up. It's glorious.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
But I swear my guards out. I got down here,
I warmed up. I met the guy. It's a lovely chap.
Our kids are in the same age group at nippers.
There was a couple other people I recognize. One of
my neighbors is in there, another lady.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
These guys have got tumble turns and stuff. Man, I
really need.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
To work on that.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I've got in the pool and I can tell.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Ah man.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
I tried to get on top of the nerves, but I.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Knew though I wasn't going fast enough. So unfortunately I
pushed it and I thought I'm either going to I'm
going to vomit, or I'm going to be okay. So
I managed to not vomit, but it was definitely I
was pushing that hard. But he was very sweet about it.
He goes, you're over, mate, you're over. You're about ninety
(16:26):
seconds over.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
So okay, I guess it's all right. We'll do another
one before the end of January. But you know, the
course starts. Just get in the pool, Get in the pool.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Who was very encouraging, and I really I'm really grateful
for the way that he taught me through it because
it's clear that I'm not at the cardoff so I
need to be for the fitness level that it needs
to be to do.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
This thing, which is fair enough.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
If your volunteer life savers get paffed, that's not good.
You want your volunteer life savers to have a level
of fitness about him, you know what I mean. So
I get it, but so in the same way that
there's a disappointment. But it's not.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
A situation where I'm.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Like, oh, what a total failure.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I fuck this, it's all over, which is definitely something
that would have happened when I was a younger man. No,
this is a okay, Well, there's there's a target to
aim at, there's something to head for, and I know
from when I was running. If my running times were
(17:39):
slower after a period of inactivity, just how quickly they
come back. How quickly you can recondition yourself into fitness
is something that you can't underestimate.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
But it just requires a consistency.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And so if anything, when he says you're a bit over, mate,
we're going to do another one again in January.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
So I didn't realize there was going to be another
one of the end of January. So that's nice.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
But now I've got a little over two months and
I know where I need to go. It's always good
to have a target to aim for, so I know where.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I need to go, I know where my.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Times need to get to, I know how I've got
a feel when I get to various parts of the swim,
and now I know, and that is really an enormous relief.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Because now I I know what to do. I told
you earlier this could have ended in two ways, either
get it or.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I don't, but I didn't realize it was a third way.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I didn't realize you could not get it, and you
get another chance to try again, and it actually.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Feels really good.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I was legitimately quite afraid before, and I had a
lot of nervous attention and a lot of anxiety, which
may have affected me, but I don't think it affected
me as much as my general lack of fitness. However,
(19:07):
it does kind of remind me of when it throw
all our hip surgery stuff and the doctor that really
really really helped me. Here's one that just explained to
me is like, look, once you get a diagnosis, you
get a plan. As soon as you know that a
plan exists, things feel a lot better because at least
you know that you've got somewhere to go. And now
I know I've got somewhere to go, I know how
I want to get there, I don't know what I
(19:28):
need to do to get there, and there's a huge.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Chance of relief. It's nice.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I'm very lucky to live in a country that values
looking after each other, the point where you're having an
entire volunteer organization dedicated.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
To helping people enjoy the beach safely.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
It's wonderful to sit here and watch the waves break
over the rocks, and the crabs cool around, and people
enjoy themselves out in the sun.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Have a beautiful week. I see you back here Wednesday.
I'm gonna go do some ones,
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